Josef Salminger
Josef Salminger (born March 5, 1903 in Munich , † October 1, 1943 near Klissoura in Epirus , Greece ) was a colonel in the mountain troops of the Wehrmacht and responsible for war crimes in World War II .
Soldier career
On August 31, 1941, Captain Salminger was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. Like his former superior Schörner, Salminger also saw Adolf Hitler as the savior of Germany and gave free rein to his enthusiasm for the "Führer": "This regiment is not just a German regiment, it is a Hitlerian regiment!"
On August 14, 1943, Lieutenant Colonel Josef Salminger, who commanded the 98 Mountain Infantry Regiment, was instructed to prepare for a “surprise attack” on the Greek village of Kommeno . On the evening of August 15, 1943, Salminger gave a fiery speech to his soldiers, the next day, on August 16, 1943, shortly before sunrise, the soldiers of the 12th Company of the 98th Regiment of the 1st Mountain Division took from Lieutenant Willibald “ Willy “Röser countering her orders. In the bloodbath that followed, the Bavarian mountain troops murdered 317 people of different ages, men and women, from the village of Kommeno. Major Reinhold Klebe was in charge of the "operational" management of this mass murder .
On October 1, 1943 Salminger fell on the way back to Ioannina in an ambush of the partisans and was shot.
Quote
The Salminger superior commanding general of the XXII. Mountain Corps, General of the Mountain Troops Hubert Lanz , called for revenge and retaliation in his daily corps order of October 1, 1943:
“Salminger was a battalion and regiment commander who had been tried and tested in a hundred battles in the west and east. His exemplary, brave and enthusiastic leader will live on forever in the hearts of his mountain troops and in the annals of his regiment. In reverent and grateful remembrance, the XXII. Mountain Corps raised flags over the soldiers' grave of this brave commander. I expect that the 1st Mountain Division will avenge this nefarious bandit murder of one of our best commanders in a ruthless retaliatory action within 20 km of the murder site. "
Awards
- Wehrmacht service award IV. And III. class
- Medal in memory of March 13, 1938 on November 8, 1938
- Iron Cross (1939) 2nd and 1st class
- Infantry Assault Badge July 1, 1940
- Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on August 31, 1941
- Star of Romania IV class with swords on November 1, 1941
- Medal Winter Battle in the East 1941/42 on August 1, 1942
- Wound Badge (1939) in gold on September 11, 1942
- German cross in gold on October 9, 1942
literature
- Hermann Frank Meyer : Kommeno: Narrative reconstruction of a Wehrmacht crime in Greece. Romiosini, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-929889-34-X .
- Hermann Frank Meyer: Bloody Edelweiss: The 1st Mountain Division in World War II. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-86153-447-1 ( Google Books ).
Web links
- Hannes Heer : Bloody Overture . Die Zeit , June 21, 2001, revised September 7, 2013
- Hermann Frank Meyer : Mousiotitsas - Kommeno - Lingiades: The 1st Mountain Division in Epirus in the summer of 1943 . HF Meyer website, 1999
- Promising campaign against the mountain hunters in Mittenwald . Forum of solidarity and peace in Augsburg
Individual evidence
- ↑ Mark Mazower : Military violence and National Socialist values - The Wehrmacht in Greece 1941 to 1944. In: Hannes Heer, Klaus Naumann (Ed.): War of destruction: Crimes of the Wehrmacht 1941 to 1944. Hamburger Edition, Hamburg 1995, ISBN 3-930908- 04-2 , p. 172.
- ↑ Hagen Fleischer : Guilt without Atonement: War Crimes in Greece. In: Wette, Ueberschär (Ed.): War crimes in the 20th century. Primus-Verlag, Darmstadt 2001, ISBN 3-89678-417-X ; Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, 2001, ISBN 978-3-534-14720-5 , p. 213
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Salminger, Josef |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German military, Colonel of the mountain troops of the Wehrmacht |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 5, 1903 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Munich |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 1, 1943 |
| Place of death | at Klissoura in Epirus, western Greece |